Martha Settle Putney

Martha Settle Putney (November 9, 1916 – December 11, 2008) was an American educator and historian who chronicled the roles of African Americans in the armed forces. After serving as one of the first black members of the Women's Army Corps during World War II, she devoted her life to researching and documenting the military service and achievements of black Americans. Following a period of employment with the War Manpower Commission after her discharge from the army, she entered the academic world, earning a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and pursuing a distinguished teaching career at Bowie State College (now Bowie State University) in Maryland, where she chaired the history and geography department, and later at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington, D.C. Upon retiring from the faculty at Howard, she embarked on a writing career that included three books and over 20 journal articles. At the time of her death at age 92 she was working on a fourth book portraying the contributions of blacks in combat dating back to the American Revolutionary War.